The Troubling Link Between Springtime Allergies and Suicide

Early in his career, Teodor Postolache, a psychiatry professor at the University of Maryland, was struck by a peculiar trend that comes up again and again in suicide research. Across decades and in various countries, suicide is much more common in the spring and early summer than other times of year.

Now, Postolache and other researchers believe they have found a curious link between the season and self-harm: pollen-induced allergies.

In 2005, Postolache and his collaborators that the suicide rate among young women doubled during that suicide attempts in women rose with daily tree pollen counts in the Dallas area. And just last month, in found that increased pollen in the air raised the risk of suicide in women in Tokyo—meaning this dark trend might apply across cultures.